


Long Live The Kids

by lexacommander



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, clexa au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 07:17:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3601134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexacommander/pseuds/lexacommander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>idk what happened with this sorry lmao</p></blockquote>





	Long Live The Kids

**Chapter One**

 

Clarke pushed somewhat impatiently through the crowd of people in her way to try to get to the reception desk. She just needed to find out where her dorm was, get a key and unpack her things. This year, she promised herself she would stay on top of things and not let herself get distracted. (A distraction was all she needed, really. College seemed like a good one.)

 

 

Lexa heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes slightly as she waited for the elevator to take her up to what was to be her floor. She didn’t understand why everyone was so _loud_. She thought college was going to be a place for learning- actual focused learning- and studying. There was a significant chance that she was wrong, she now thought. The doors finally opened with a bing and she squeezed in alongside the group of other students. As they tossed insults and rude jokes back and forth she decided that any place was better than where she’d come from, really. She’d settle in somehow.

 

**[A few weeks later]**

 

Clarke rushed out of her dorm- her parents had paid a little extra so she wouldn’t have to share- into the hall towards the lift. She refused to be late for her first day of class. She wasn’t sure if her refusal to be late would actually have any effect, though.

            She showed up only two minutes late, Clarke guessed, but the whole class’ eyes seemed to be on her as she tried to (quietly) find a seat. She gave the professor an apologetic smile and sat down in the seat nearest to her. She busied herself with unpacking her bag, placing notepad and pens onto the desk in front of her, but she felt a set of eyes on her. She turned and saw the girl sitting next to her glaring. Clarke hadn’t really paid any attention to where she sat, but she saw now that she had perhaps pulled a short straw. The girl was pretty, no doubt, with slightly wild brown hair and very soft features. Clarke stopped paying attention to her soft features, however, when she realised that the expression on the girl's face was a little less than soft. Clarke did not appreciate people looking at her like that.

            “Do you want something?” she said, and it sounded less confident than she’d have liked. She thought she’d got the message across, though, because the girl’s expression shifted slightly.

            “You’re late”

“I know that.” Clarke rolled her eyes at the desk.

“You should really try to be on time. People have had to work hard to get here. You should respect that. Put in the effort to come on time...” She eyed the label on Clarke’s notepad “..Clarke.”

            Clarke thought of responding, but instead she turned away and raised her eyebrows at the floor. This girl was a _bitch_. Clearly she’d made a mistake sitting here. “Look I’m sorry okay- I just had a lot to do and I guess I’m slower than I thought I was.” It was true- she had had a lot to do. No more than the other students here, she supposed, but it was more than she was used to. She’d always thought of herself as fairly independent, but at home she’d been looked out for, and there were responsibilities she’d never even realised were there that were now entirely hers, and perhaps she wasn’t as well prepared for them as she probably should’ve been. She sighed. There really are things money can’t buy, she thought. Maybe she would’ve been better off had her family been slightly less well off.

            They spent the rest of the hour in silence.

 

 

            The remainder of the week passed fairly quickly, and soon it was the weekend. Lexa spent it shopping for groceries to stock up the tiny fridge in her dorm. She hadn’t really spoken to anyone much, her roommate included. Lexa thought she seemed nice enough though, and deemed her acceptable company. She should probably buy some clo-

            “Agh shit sorry!” This was the first thing Lexa registered as she rounded the corner into the hall where here dorm was. Next, all her groceries falling to the ground. Then the small blonde responsible for it, who was currently trying to pick up some of Lexa’s things. A look of recognition crossed her face just at the same moment as Lexa realised.

            “You’re the one who came into class late on Monday.”

            “ _You’re_ the one who lectured me about it and then spent the rest of the lesson glaring at the side of my head!” the girl retorted somewhat angrily.

            “It was hardly a _lecture_ ” Lexa said.

            “Whatev- oh shit.” Clarke seemed to realise at the same moment as Lexa that one of the milk cartons had split and they were both standing in a puddle of the stuff that had formed as they were talking. “I’ll get something to wipe that up” Clarke said. Lexa didn’t respond. “I can give you a carton of milk too. I have some spare in the fridge, and that was kind of my fault so..”

            Lexa nodded.

            “Okay wait here, I’ll just go get a cloth or something.” As Lexa waited, she stared at the walls. They weren’t particularly interesting- a vaguely depressive shade of green that looked as if it had tried to look cheerful but run out of enthusiasm halfway.

            “Okay,” Clarke said. She was back, and attempting to soak up some of the mess using a rag, and she seemed to have brought a bucket, too. “No point crying over spilt milk, right?” Clarke joked. Lexa didn’t respond. When she was finished Clarke stood up, looked like she was going to smile, but then said, “Oh, sorry! I forgot the milk. I’ll go get it now. Where’s your dorm, then? It must be pretty close by if you were going down this hallway, right?” Lexa used a carrot to point in the direction of her room. “Great! That’s right near mine. Just this way, I’ll get the milk now.”

            Clarke straightened herself out after retrieving the milk from the small fridge. “What’s your name, anyway? I didn’t manage to catch it” she said, handing her the new carton of milk

            “Lexa.”

            “Oh, that’s nice. Well, I’m sure we’ll meet again, Lexa.”

            “Thank you.” Lexa said, gesturing towards the milk carton in her arms. She shut the door behind her.

 

            As Lexa unpacked her groceries, she thought. She thought, here, she would have a chance at a new beginning, to finally be free from her past, but she worried she was wrong. Her family still hadn’t called or written or even given any indication she existed, and while she was not surprised, it still stung. She would never admit that to herself though. Her family had never made any attempts to even feign love or affection towards her, apart from when they wanted something. When she was younger, before she knew better, she would fall into these traps. She would give her father the birthday money from the Grandma Who Stopped Visiting After That One Christmas when he told her good old pa needed a drink, or cover for her mother when she stumbled into the house in the early hours of the morning smelling of alcohol and someone else’s home. She did anything for those short moments where she felt wanted.

But then, things had changed. Anya had moved in next door, had shown her what she could achieve if she put her mind to it, had helped pull her out from the wreckage of her family. Anya had helped her to be better, to be stronger, had taught her that sometimes to be great also meant to be ruthless. She owed the fact that she’d gotten a full scholarship here almost entirely to her. She was grateful. Her family would never change, and so Lexa had had to untie her own ropes to escape the endless loop they were stuck in. She had always felt responsible for them, in some way, and she knew that was wrong. No child should have to care for their parents, and it had taken its toll on her. She could not afford to care, now. She must not get sucked back into their chaotic way of life. She could not be weak.

Lexa had never meant to be heartless, really. It was just a side effect of protecting herself from the toxicity of her family.

Maybe here, things would be different, though. She was finally away from them. She could start again.

 

 

Clarke had been on her way downstairs to collect her laundry when she ran into Lexa, causing the spilled milk incident. Ran, because this was a public laundry facility, and you couldn’t know what happened there. Clarke did not want to leave her clothes unsupervised for any longer than was absolutely necessary.

Clarke hummed quietly along to the tinny sound of the radio as she folded her laundry- another thing she wasn’t entirely used to doing. She wasn’t as pampered as people thought, though, and she certainly wasn’t helpless. People often forgot that Clarke was more than just the child of her parents. Clarke forgot it too, sometimes.

She sighed and carried the basket back up to her empty room. She hadn’t lived an altogether sheltered life. She had breathed real air, and been outside, and fought and won and lost and loved and lied. She was smart, she always had been, but people seemed to look past that sometimes. That annoyed her. Anyway, she thought, Lexa seemed nice enough, though she was far from talkative. Admittedly, Clarke had immensely disliked her at first, but she had always believed second chances mattered more than first impressions. First impressions seemed to be all Clarke ever got, though, with her family constantly moving on business, being uprooted every time she’d gotten used to calling a place home. They had stayed for longer in some places, though. She had stayed for longer with Finn.

Here would be different, though. She would stay here for a few years at least, get to call it home. Maybe she would even make some good friends. She would have to wait and see, she thought. Waiting didn’t seem like such a bad thing at all. She had time.

**Author's Note:**

> idk what happened with this sorry lmao


End file.
